Wa and the Wala: Islam and Polity in Northwestern Ghana Book

I've marked this as "read, grad student," which means it was one of dozens of books I consumed in very little time while in graduate school. Generally, I tried to read the introduction and conclusion, the beginning and end of each chapter, and then used the index to find sections of especial interest. Judging by the highlighting in this volume, and my lack of memory of it five years later, I only managed step one (intro and conclusion) with this book.

This is unfortunate, because it's a fairly well-written and interesting book, one that I hope I can return to at some point. Essentially, the argument is that, in spite of the predominance of Orthodox Christianity in the Russian Empire, the imperial family learned to cooperate with Muslim subjects and administrated them by means of collaboration with prominent Muslim clerics. As a result, Islam thrived side-by-side with Orthodoxy, and did not become a site of resistance to the regime. Crews's study covers a wide area and several different cultures and languages, but he seems to have managed the challenges well. It is restricted to primarily the nineteenth century, although some discussion of the preceding and following centuries is included as well. One minor criticism I had was that he uses the term "well ordered police state," often in scare-quotes, without explaining its origin. A reader unfamiliar with Russian historiography might think that this was a term contemporary to the subject matter, while as a person who did Russia as a minor field I recognize it as an analytical term introduced by a Russianist, Marc Raeff, but couldn't tell you the full implications of Crews's use of the term.

Overall, however, this book is full of fascinating insights and anecdotes, and is probably a worthwhile study for those concerned with the best ways an empire can co-exist with a religion like Islam.]